YSL Closes Louboutin Court Case

Updated Tuesday October 16, 4.47pm: Yves Saint Laurent SA has voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit against Christian Louboutin SA in a move that will bring the lengthy court case to an end. The latter footwear label first sued the French fashion house in April 2011 over allegations that the label had copied its signature red soles. In September this year, the New York Court of Appeals said that Louboutin's trademark red soles were entitled to protection, except when the shoe itself is red - allowing YSL to make and sell red-soled shoes.

"Now that the Court of Appeals has definitively ruled for Yves Saint Laurent and has dismissed Christian Louboutin's claims, Yves Saint Laurent has decided to end what was left of the litigation and refocus its energies on its business and its creative designs," YSL attorney David Bernstein told WWD. "By dismissing the case now, Yves Saint Laurent also wishes to ensure that the Court will not make any further rulings that put at risk the ability of fashion designers to trademark colour in appropriate cases."

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entirely red, from soles to uppers.

"The District Court's conclusion that a single colour can never serve as a trademark in the fashion industry was based on an incorrect understanding of the doctrine of aesthetic functionality and was therefore in error," the appeals judges wrote, Business Week reports.

In August last year, a New York court judge denied Louboutin the right to stop YSL from selling all red-sole pumps. He appealed against the ruling that same month.

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"Contrary to some reports that have appeared, the New York appeal court ruling is a full victory for the French fashion house Yves Saint Laurent," a statement from YSL read. "The Appeal Court has confirmed all arguments made by YSL in this case and YSL is extremely satisfied with this outcome."

"Louboutin had attacked Yves Saint Laurent in 2011 demanding an injunction against the sale of YSL monochromatic red shoes in the United States. In August 2011, the judge of first instance denied this demand. Louboutin decided to appeal the ruling. Yesterday, the court of appeal decided to go even further in ruling definitively that YSL is fully entitled to sell monochromatic red shoes. All Louboutin claims have therefore been dismissed for a second time. YSL has been selling single-colour shoes (red, purple, blue etc), since the beginning of the Seventies. This legal victory gives YSL full liberty to sell its red shoes."

"We won the first proceedings in quite precise, clear terms," Pinault told WWD. "I am therefore very confident with regard to this case, even if I regret it, because these are two great houses and I think we have better things to do than to fight in court over a question of colour."

Updated Wednesday February 8, 10.55am: Christian Louboutin has spoken out once again on his on-going court battle with YSL over claims the label copied his famous red soles.

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"I find it most incredible that a group like PPR would take the risk of defending itself as a plagiarist," he said. "They claim to fight against counterfeiting and plagiarism of which they are victims and yet behave like this."

The footwear designer added that PPR, who owns YSL, had made "many proposals" to buy his company in the past - all of which he turned down. He expressed his disappointment at having to take the brand to court, considering that he knew the head of PPR - ceo François-Henri Pinault - very well and that Yves Saint Laurent himself was someone he had worked with and had "great admiration for". Louboutin also asserted that he wasn't trying to copyright a colour, but the issue was more complicated.

"I understand that, but it is a red in a specific context [in the way that], there is Ferrari red [and] Hermès orange," he told French newspaper Libération. "Even in the food industry, Cadbury recently won a lawsuit against Nestlé for using purple packaging. All this proves that the colours play a part in a brand's identity. I'm not saying that red usually belongs to me - I repeat that this is about a precise red, used in a precise location."

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Updated Wednesday January 25, 8.46am: Christian Louboutin was in court in Manhattan yesterday to hear his lawyers mount an impassioned final plea to protect his red-sole trademark. A stylishly dressed Diane von Furstenberg - who arrived in gold-rimmed aviators and a long black sparkly jumper - sat next to him to lend her support.

"For YSL and PPR Group, this might just be a legal matter, but that's not the case for me," Louboutin said. "On the contrary, to me it is very personal: after all, this is an intrinsic part of my life and my company, which bears my name - and which I have built over the past 20 years and still independently own. This is why I had to be there in person."

The panel of three Appeals Court judges hearing the case are currently preparing to decide whether the original judgement - allowing Yves Saint Laurent to continue selling its red, monochromatic pump from the 2011 resort collection, and calling into question the validity of Louboutin's trademark, which he obtained in 2008 - was correct. If the judgement is reversed, YSL and Louboutin will head back to court for a trial to resolve the lawsuit.

"I was impressed by the way the judges ran the hearing," Louboutin told WWD. "The company remains confident that the appeals court will adhere to its conviction that the red sole, this integral and long-held part of the brand's identity and recognised by consumers worldwide, will continue to be recognised as the Christian Louboutin trademark."

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Updated Wednesday January 4, 8.27am: Christian Louboutin has suffered another blow to its attempt to protect its red soles trademark, as a group of eminent law professors has sided with YSL. The academics - from some of the US's most famous law schools - have filed an amicus brief with the Federal Court of Appeals in Manhattan urging the court not to allow Louboutin to "monopolise" the colour, WWD reports. The appeal "should be rejected in order to preserve freedom of innovation and competition," the group stated.

"A woman who buys red shoes is doing so for a reason," the brief argues. "Red shoes have a particular meaning to her, and to others, that cannot be supplied or even approximated by shoes of a different colour. Given the substantial creativity involved in both fashion design and fashion consumption, courts should not lightly allow one particular competitor to monopolise particular fashion submarkets."

The case, which began in April 2010, may not be settled for months to come.

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YSL filed an appellate brief in late December - within the federal court of appeals deadline - in response to Christian Louboutin's appeal of the court ruling in October. YSL maintains that the court's original judgement - that Christian Louboutin should not be allowed to trademark the colour red - should be upheld and that Louboutin failed to show that YSL's use of the red sole caused "irreparable harm" to its business.

Updated Tuesday October 25, 10.43am: Tiffany & Co has added weight to Christian Louboutin's red soles fight, by filing its own brief arguing that a colour - like the blue of its famous Tiffany boxes - can be trademarked and shouldn't be allowed to be copied.

"We are enormously pleased that Tiffany has weighed in," Louboutin's lawyer told WWD. "Tiffany has not only agreed with our arguments, but it also put forth arguments that strengthened the case and made the point that the [earlier] decision should be reversed."

"Tiffany is not taking sides in this dispute," Tiffany's lawyer was careful to add. "We are only trying to assure that this area of the law is not disturbed by an overbroad decision in the lower court."

Updated Wednesday October 19, 10.31am: Christian Louboutin has launched an appeal against the court's decision not to grant an injunction stopping Yves Saint Laurent from producing red-soled shoes - but a verdict may not be passed until 2012. The shoe label filed its first brief to the Court of Appeal in Manhattan on Monday with the hopes of protecting its trademark red soles, whilst YSL's representatives have not yet filed the expected counter-suit.

"All the briefs from both sides are on a schedule that the Court of Appeals agreed with, to wit: all done and in before the end of the year," Louboutin's lawyer told WWD. "Considering what is at stake, it is probably fair to assume a ruling sometime in early spring, if not earlier."

Updated Friday August 19, 10.08am: An expert in US fashion law has stated that even Tiffany & Co's trademark blue boxes could be at risk of copying if Louboutin's trademark case against Yves Saint Laurent falls apart. "Louboutin's nightmare is that every fast-fashion retailer will begin stirring up vats of red dye because it believes the trademark is officially cancelled or is about to be," Susan Scafidi, director of Fordham University's Fashion Law institute, told WWD. "Louboutin stands to lose so much. This is identity theft for him. Those red soles are almost as recognisable as his name. The philosophical question is, if it doesn't have a red sole, is it a Louboutin? If the shoe has house designs on it, yes, but the question is, will the public see it that way?"

Updated Monday August 15, 9.13am: Christian Louboutin's lawyer says the shoe designer plans to "fight like hell" against YSL's attempt to overturn his re-sole trademark - and plans to file an appeal against the judge's denial of his requested injunction. Louboutin had asked that YSL be stopped from producing red-soled shoes in its pre-spring/summer 2011-12 collection whilst the two brands fought their trademark dispute in court. Last week the judge ruled that Yves Saint Laurent could continue to produce the shoes in the meantime and hinted that Louboutin's monopoly on the colour could be set to end.

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Updated Wednesday August 10, 4.40pm: Christian Louboutin's request for an injunction to stop sales of red-soled shoes made by Yves Saint Laurent has been denied by the judge considering the case. Judge Victor Marrero said Louboutin wasn't able to prove that its red soles deserve trademark protection.

"Because in the fashion industry colour serves ornamental and aesthetic functions vital to robust competition, the court finds that Louboutin is unlikely to be able to prove that its red outsole brand is entitled to trademark protection," Marrero concluded, the Wall Street Journal reports.

With the injunction denied, it looks unlikely that Louboutin will win its case against YSL, since it too relies on the association of the red sole only with Louboutin.

Updated Thursday August 4, 8.56am: Both parties are still awaiting a decision, but the judge deliberating the case between Christian Louboutin and Yves Saint Laurent over the use of red-soled shoes sided with Louboutin yesterday as he ruled to disregard exhibits submitted by YSL. Both sides submitted letters declaring their position, but YSL supplied additional articles - including a chart depicting YSL red- soled shoes since 2004 - which Judge Victor Marrero, presiding, ruled inadmissible. Louboutin's lawyer argued the chart's accuracy could not be verified and the judge agreed. Louboutin is seeking an injunction to stop YSL producing red-soled shoes for its 2011 cruise collection. It is not known when a decision might be reached.

Updated Tuesday July 25 8.26am: Shoes were strewn all over a New York courtroom yesterday as the Judge heard preliminary evidence in the case of Christian Louboutin vs Yves Saint Laurent. Louboutin's lawyer Harley Lewin of McCarter & English LLP urged the Judge to grant a preliminary injunction, stopping YSL from producing and selling the red-soled shoes it has produced for its <a href="http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/spring-summer-2012/ready-to-wear/yves-saint-laurent-pre"> pre-spring/summer 2011-12 collection</a>. Lewin asserted that if the injunction was not granted, it would cause "irreparable harm" to the brand, WWD reports, and could encourage third parties to begin mass producing shoes with red soles.

<a href="http://www.vogue.co.uk/search?q=yves">YSL's</a> representative argued that no brand should have the "monopoly on a colour" - and that red soles have been worn through the ages by everyone from King Louis XIV of France to Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, which was greeted by sniggers from the courtroom.

And the judge's final words as he retired to his chambers to consider the footwear evidence he'd seen?

Updated Tuesday May 24, 8.17am: Yves Saint Laurent has responded to accusations that it copied Christian Louboutin's trademark red soles, by asserting the shoe designer doesn't have a monopoly on the colour.

"Red outsoles are a commonly used ornamental design feature in footwear, dating as far back as the red shoes worn by King Louis XIV in the 1600s and the ruby red shoes that carried Dorothy home in The Wizard of Oz," court papers filed by YSL read. "As an industry leader who has devoted his entire professional life to women's footwear, Mr Louboutin either knew or should have known about some or all of the dozens of footwear models that rendered his sworn statement false."

In a lawsuit launched last month in New York, Louboutin is seeking damages of $1 million from YSL which - Louboutin claims - has copied his signature coloured sole on "virtually identical" shoes.

Updated Wednesday April 20, 4.23pm: Louboutin has spoken out for the first time about his court case against Yves Saint Laurent, following allegations the luxury fashion house copied his famous red soles.

"I have the biggest respect for the house of Yves Saint Laurent," the designer tells the Evening Standard. "Having discussed the matter with them and not been able to reach an agreement, we have had to take this to court. My company has a trademark on the red sole and if we don't enforce it this would leave the door open for other brands to copy us while jeopardising the identity of the Louboutin red sole. No one before me has ever used a coloured sole to define a brand's identity. The red sole has become widely recognised as the distinct sign of my brand in the eyes of women all over the world."

Updated Tuesday April 12, 09.14am: Christian Louboutin is suing a second footwear company, Carmen Steffens, for replicating his signature red soles. The Brazilian label has fought back against the allegations, commenting that it has been using the colour red on its soles since 1996 - before Louboutin officially trademarked it in the US.

"Carmen Steffens France is confident in its position regarding the brand's long-standing use of colour on the soles of some styles of Carmen Steffens shoes, including the infrequent use of various tones of red," Carmen Steffens' president of US operations, Mark Willingham, told Footwear News. "Of the 250 styles in Carmen Steffens France's current collection, only three styles utilise red tones on their soles."

Louboutin filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in New York on Thursday, alleging that YSL has breached its copyright by using the red sole.

"Mr. Louboutin is the first designer to develop the idea of having red soles on women's shoes," the lawsuit said, Reuters reports. "The defendants' use of red footwear outsoles that are virtually identical to the plaintiffs' Red Sole Mark is likely to cause and is causing confusion, mistake and deception among the relevant purchasing public."

Louboutin - which trademarked the red sole in the US in 2008 - says that it asked YSL to refrain from using the red colour in January this year, but the company has not yet responded. The shoe company is asking the court to award it $1 million in damages and to order YSL to halt production of all red soled shoes.

This isn't the first time the footwear legend has become annoyed at other labels using his trademark colour - in 2007, the label sued US brand Oh Deer! after it replicated his famous red sole.

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